Five Faces of Me
by SCIK1012
Summary: Whenever I meditate, I get to see them; the five faces of me. I hear what they have to say and I reflect on what they are, hoping to grow into a better person. Not to determine how good or how evil I had or can be, but to find out if there exists a better me, somewhere within. –One-Shot–


**Five Faces of Me**

Fortune telling: the ancient art of predicting what's to come in people's personal lives. It is a practice long ago banned from great civilizations like the Candy Kingdom, where science was welcomed and embraced as a divine law, but still worth of praise in wild lands such as the Fire Kingdom. The flame people often left their destinies in the hands of a skilled fortuneteller, especially those of royal blood. We consider it tradition.

It's well known that there has always been a mystic seer ready to guide the Kings and Queens of our land; ruling their lives, and sealing their fates before they even learn how to walk or talk. Great emperors owe their success and victories in battle to the advice, and the wise word of this vaticinator, this sage of the future. However, the preaching of the crystal ball has also doomed many others for as long as our history goes. You know, there can't be glory for all.

Such was the fate of the monarch, who was warned about his sibling's betrayal. It is the pitiful story of a fallen king who was too proud to listen, and ended up murdered the next day by his younger brother. Some years later, the new Flame King had his future divined on the very day his second heir was born. But you see, this wasn't the first time our murderous king had his hand read, no… Long ago it had been predicted that his untruthful kingdom would succumb to the strength of a fire elemental with much greater powers, beyond his wildest dreams. This time he had to make sure such being hadn't been born yet, just like he did every year.

Imagine his surprise when the royal herald brought to him the word of his newborn baby's unlimited powers. It was a sentence of death for a fragile creature that had only taken in her first breath. Condemned since birth, this young princess crawled back and forth between life and death, imprisonment and freedom, love and loneliness, lies and truth; all through her existence until she found her way back to the place where she belonged. The Fire Kingdom's Throne became hers to keep after locking her ambitious father away, proving that one often finds its destiny on the path we take to avoid it.

Now, what lies in store for this banished princess? Does the future hold a warning, a rightful advice for this young king in the making?

Is there a future for… me?

Yes, I am that girl. I am Flame Princess. And I don't believe in fortune telling, or anything related to that practice. Lies, that's all it is. What now? Some of the premonitions became true, you say? Let me tell you about something I do believe in: faith.

Faith isn't just a deep passionate belief; it is the life we build with our own hands as we wander through our time on earth. Those kings fighting over power and killing each other faced such fates because they wanted it that way. They never did anything to change them, did they? No, they made it happen themselves. Now, I was born powerful, that's true. You see, Nature made that decision for me; it is what a gummy princess I know would call a flaw. Like any other sickness or irrational personality trait, it just happened. I have no control over it, and as you know, no one can defy Nature.

Although I met someone brave or just foolish enough to do it, and no one predicted something like that could happen, right?

I know, the birth of a powerful fire elemental was predicted indeed, and it happened to be me. What a lucky coincidence! Don't you think?

But guess what? Not only I am strong, I am as strong as I need to be. The circumstances I've been forced to live have made my power grow. The constant harassment of my father has given me the strength to surpass his. If I am a threat to him, it is only because he made it happen. I had to find a way to survive, and it was with my faith on myself that I was able to do so.

Faith in me, faith in the few friends I have, and faith in my people, those are the only principles that sustain the new me. That's what gives a little sense to the calamity that my whole life has been.

I chose not to believe in the divinations that my race has praised for so long, because like any other shallow lie, they bring nothing but pain. At least… that's all they've ever done for me… I can't believe I used to be gullible enough to fall for such dirty tricks! But then again, I guess that shows how much I have evolved over time…

For better or for worse…

Whenever I meditate, I get to see them; the five faces of me. I hear what they have to say and I reflect on what they are, hoping to grow into a better person. Not to determine how good or how evil I had or can be, but to find out if there exists a better me, somewhere within.

When I close my eyes and let my mind wander off into the emptiness of space, I can meet my past selves. Thirteen year-old Flame Princess, for example, is always the first one to welcome me.

I pity her. She lives trapped in her own made up world, oblivious of the wonders and the cruelness of the outside world. Yet, she's the happiest of us all. I don't know what to think or say when I see her playing around, wearing her royal orange dress. She's so innocent and closed-minded, that she's proud of being the Flame King's daughter. Poor thing, she doesn't realize she has been deceived all of her life.

But I wouldn't tell her either, she's highly emotional, wild and unstable, even I don't know how she would react. Maybe it's better to leave her be that way, with her head in the clouds, thinking of her beloved Prince Finn. She's crazy for him you know? Perhaps that is what makes her so happy; the illusion of wonder and everlasting romance.

I can't believe that foolish girl and me were one and the same.

Then, there's Fourteen year-old Flame Princess. Even if she is the unhappiest of us, I can't take pity on her. I now understand what she is going through; a process of change. My, she used to be so pretty with her cute short hair and that casual dress. Somehow it makes her look like a normal teenager of her age.

I actually admire her; 'cause she was brave enough to open her mind and question the world around her. She questioned her father; she questioned Finn and, even herself through her alignment. That is how she freed her heart from that naïve illusion of wonder and everlasting romance.

Yes, she has so much freedom in her hands that she has grown very confused and conflicted. Her bravery turned her into an insecure ball of wrecked nerves, anxiety and fears. Fear of being evil, fear of losing her Finn, fear of being herself… definitively a troubling age. That sense of dread that invaded the back of her mind made her incapable of believing in herself. Sometimes, even her own power scared her, and she couldn't understand why.

And I can't understand why nobody cared to tell her… Though, I know Finn tried.

Whenever we meet, I feel her anguish; we both know that unyielding trust towards that human boy can't last much longer. But as I said before, her disgrace ensured a chance for a critical change in our life. I like to pat her shoulder and pretend that our future is gonna be alright.

She's never sure, though.

Ah, the darkest side of me? The Almighty Flame King, or should I say, the closest entity to the actual me? We know each other quite well; she is the angriest of us all, and also the most determined. In her blazing eyes I can see the hatred that she feels towards my other two past selves. She blames them for all the suffering that she was forced to endure, and if I were to give her the chance, she'd kill them in the blink of an eye. To her, they are nothing but foolish, credulous idiots in need of a fistful of reality to open their eyes to the truth.

Extremely independent, and even cold for a fire elemental, this wanna be king has chosen to keep her mind closed once again, and to trust no one but herself and her misunderstood cinnamon friend. Broken-hearted, hurt, and betrayed, she chose the ways of violence to reclaim what she thought was meant to be hers. By kicking her selfish father out of the throne, she managed to obtain a little bit of justice in her life.

But, did she obtain some inner peace as well? Sadly, no. Her quest for honesty led her to reject every lie and liar she knew, even our dearest Finn the Human was condemned to walk away from the warmth of her once amorous heart.

I must say, she's quite an expert when it comes to conceal her feelings. It makes me ponder on the many differences that exist between her and Thirteen year-old Flame Princess, we all have gone through such a long way…

Power, a throne and a crown won't make her as happy as she once used to be, this fifteen year-old version of me knows it, but she will never admit it. That's why we always clash. Because I am that part of her that keeps telling her that this isn't the right way to recover our inner peace, (if we ever had it).

She mocks me whenever she can, saying that if I let my guard down, my heart will be crushed again. Sometimes I believe her, and sometimes I fight back. She knows I'm as confused as in the beginning and she laughs at me. Still, there are times when she comes to me, strangely calm and nostalgic, in search of answers.

"Won't anyone love to love me again?" she sighs.

I am her future self, but even so I can't find a real answer to that. We are not that different, she and I. It doesn't matter if the darkness of her armor and the white of my dress tell other wise. We are both afraid of loneliness, afraid of being abandoned by those we love.

Maybe it's a trauma that we've carried ever since our baby self was sent away to die. Little Flame Princess understands me better than my other selves. Although she is the youngest and the most innocent of us, she's actually full of humbleness and plenty of love to share. As the small and fragile baby that she is, and as the mature and mighty ruler that I am, we both need to look toward the future and hope for the best; because no one will do it for us.

Whenever I visualize my baby self, crawling into my arms, I kinda get a notion of what the true me is supposed to be. I understand that my past selves are just a distorted image of the real me. I'm not a foolish girl, an unsure nerve-wreck, or an angry cold-hearted soul.

I am curiosity, I am wonder, I am passion, love, and life, and hope. I am me: a Flame Princess still in the making. I am the best I can be, and I'm not afraid of the future because I know I've come this far by myself. Even more importantly, I know I'm not alone! I've got Cinnamon Bun by my side, my less evil family to support me, and my people to guide…

_I've got you, Finn in the depths of my heart… and you too, Jake like one of my brothers… _

So yeah, I don't need fortune telling to tell me what to expect of my future, because I've got faith in myself and in the people I love. I know that together, we'll build a better tomorrow.

**x~x~x~x~x**

"Ahem! Did ya get all that, CB?"

"Kinda…" he whispered.

I trusted him to help me write my royal biography, in the hopes of inspiring future generations of fire elementals with my story, and that's what we have been doing the whole afternoon! Working with paper and ink!

"Ugh… How do you spell, introduction?"

"Introdu—?! Haven't you written anything past that?!"

"Hmm… Nope…" he answered calmly.

I just slapped my forehead in exasperation. All that wasted time, vocabulary and saliva was for nothing...! But I can't get mad at Cinnamon Bun, at least this session helped me learn a little more about myself and who I want to be. I've made many mistakes in my life, so has CB and so has Finn... I guess I should forgive others, in the same way I've learned to forgive myself.

_**~The End~**_

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_**Author's Notes:**_

_So, this was originally going to be an exhaustive analysis about FP's character development that I was going to post later on tumblr before the 'The Red Throne' premiere, but I got bored and decided to turn it into a fic instead. I hope you liked it!_


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